Immigration waits in the wings

President Barack Obama promised top Latino leaders on a conference call Tuesday afternoon that once a deal is reached on the fiscal cliff, the focus of the call, he’ll throw the full force of the White House behind overhauling the country’s immigration laws.

Top Obama aides are already laying the groundwork for a campaign-style operation to broaden the base of support for a mega-bill.

The White House will not only target Latino voters but also religious leaders, law enforcement and others, according to sources familiar with the administration’s thinking. Officials have met in recent weeks with prominent Hispanic activists like Henry Muñoz on the issue of immigration reform.

Latino leaders say the activity is a clear sign that Obama plans to keep his word and make immigration a signature policy of his second term — an unsurprising move after the Hispanic vote turned out in record numbers to propel the president to victory this fall.

“There’s a strong commitment on immigration reform, but it is contingent on getting some stability around the fiscal cliff. He’s made that pretty clear,” National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguía told POLITICO. “If they have a deal that has some rationale around a two-step process or whatever, there is a genuine sense we’ll see this issue queued up and that they’ll put the force of the White House behind this.”

Murguía said Obama also addressed the issue a week after the election in a private meeting with civil rights leaders.

Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, agreed.

“He did mention [comprehensive immigration reform]. As soon as he can get the fiscal cliff issues taken care of, he’s committed to doing it,” Wilkes said of Obama’s comments on the call. Wilkes also said he believes Obama is going to be more interested in getting a law passed now that he isn’t running for office.

“What he chose to focus on in his first term were things that benefit all Americans universally and he didn’t really get to things like immigration reform that benefits a specific cohort of Americans. Now that he’s free from having to run again, he’s going to be worried about trying to do things like immigration reform that he really believes in,” Wilkes said.

Cecilia Muñoz, director of domestic policy at the White House, is heading up the administration’s effort. Muñoz is no stranger to the immigration issue. Before joining the administration, Munoz worked on immigration policy for 20 years at NCLR, the country’s largest Latino civil rights organization.

But Murguía said the difference now is that Muñoz has the White House behind her.

A White House official said that while Obama has said on a number of occasions that immigration reform is a priority, he is focused on the fiscal debate.